Elders

August brings us another summer board meeting, and another fruitful time together. We spent some time in Psalm 136 and in giving thanks to God and then moved into a shorter list of business items for this months meeting, beginning with our normal reports.

We then continued to discuss and pray over both finances and the Vision and Values Team. In the area of finances we are not looking at a dire situation, but we are also not looking at a good one. Our finance committee will be meeting in early September to discuss further any changes we need to make and come up with recommendations for the board. For the Vision and Values team we are seeking to call the right people into positions of discernment on this team and for this team to begin their work in September.

The other big item for this meeting was fall planning; I (Pastor Andrew) appreciate the perspective and wisdom of the board on these things, though ultimately ministry planning falls to the staff team. For updates on fall planning make sure you come out on Sept. 8th for our kickoff Sunday! (details will also be in the email blast, on our website, and Facebook)

Despite summer being a time when many aspects of life, including church life, slow down, our July Board meeting was as full as ever!

We always enjoy starting in the word and prayer together. Not only do we enjoy this, we recognize that it is a necessity. Our primary work is that of following Jesus, and we do so only as we submit to His word and seek Him in prayer.

After this a few key issues occupied our time. One was a lead pastor review. It is the desire of both the board and Pastor Andrew to make sure we have good systems in place for accountability and improvement - an annual review is one of these. In leading up to that, we decided to do an initial, smaller, review in order to both catch anything early and refine the process. In this case, there wasn't anything to catch, but there was much work to be done on the process!

Finances continue to be a point of discussion. Our average offering for the year and our budget are not lining up; we continue to receive less than we had thought we would. This will require some adjustments to our budget and ministry planning, and so we have begun those discussions. We are also committed to praying into this as we know that we serve the Lord of all creation who does not lack what we need.

Lastly, we have continued moving forward in our vision and values process. Our additional meetings in June and early July (mentioned in the update from our June board meeting) were focused on prayerfully discerning issues around forming and calling a team to work in this area. In our July meeting we moved into creating the list of people that we believe we should call into this team.

As well as spending time in the word and prayer, and receiving normal reports and business, two key issues occupied our time and prayer during our June Board meeting.

First we focused on finances. June marked a time of increased clarity since switching accountants and bringing more of our accounting in house with Kathleen Linton. As such, we were able to plan our communication with the congregation (which was in the bulletin in June and will continue with monthly updates in the bulletin) and discuss how things are going.

Second, we began our discussion on following up on the vision and values discernment training we received at our May board retreat. We recognized, however, that our normal monthly board meeting would not be sufficient to pray and discuss this properly. As such, we scheduled two extra meetings of the board which would not deal with business, but would be solely focused on praying over and discussing this process. The first of these in mid-June, the second in early July (before our July board meeting).

One other note, to keep you informed: the bylaw committee formed in April has been meeting and will likely be presenting the draft bylaws to the board in July (though possible not until August). After board review there are several more steps in the process. The process culminates in presenting the draft bylaws to the membership of Timbers for approval.

Our May board meeting was replaced by our Staff and Elders retreat from May 3rd-5th, led by Brian Derksen (Assistant District Superintendent of the BC district of the Christian and Missionary Alliance). This means that we did not deal with the normal reports and business; such items are delayed until June.

We arrived on Friday evening and opened our time with a game together as well as a time of worship, prayer, and sharing.

On Saturday morning we spent out time doing a variety of analytical exercises with the goal of deepening our understanding of where we are now as a church. This included a S.W.O.T. analysis, the results of an online survey that some of our leaders were invited to do by the district, and a ministry purpose analysis.

On Saturday afternoon Brian led us through a vision and values training seminar. In this time Brian led us into a deeper understanding of vision and values in themselves. He also presented 3 models of discerning vision and values, as well as both recommending and going into much more detail about the process of one of those models.

On Sunday morning some of our elders and staff led us in worship, we spent time in Mark 4, and encouraging and blessing one another.

As a summary, this weekend retreat was amazing. God was powerfully at work in our team and we are looking forward to continuing the vision and values process. The immediate next steps will be to choose one of the three models presented to us and then begin to implement it. We will keep you updated on this process (including communication on Sunday mornings).

Our April Board meeting was a time of longer sharing and praying together over Timbers, as well as dealing with a few key business items.

In the months following Kathleen's appointment as office and connections manager, she has been steadily taking on more of a role in finances and accounting. This is as planned, but it also involves ongoing decisions around banking, accounting and so on. Some of this was in our board business for April.

We also followed up on our discussion in March regarding both bylaw and building committees by confirming the mandate of each of those committees and appointing the members of each committee. Both of these committees will begin meeting and working in the weeks and months to come.

Our board meeting this March was our first after our AGM in February. This means we have said goodbye to Dave Dyer and welcomed Jesse Bennett.

We began in the word and prayer, focusing on Paul's teaching around Spiritual gifts in Romans 12. We then received our regular reports and moved on to a few key issues.

First of all, we appointed board officers for 2019. They are as follows: Treasurer - Kristy Low, Secretary - Wanda Turski, Vice Chair - Stephen Neudorf, Board Chair - Richard Beaulieu. Secondly, we reviewed and approved an employee handbook. Finally, we discussed the formation of both a bylaw committee and a building maintenance committee.

Beyond this, we dealt with a few more minor items and ended our time praying over one another.

January's board meeting was a very encouraging time for our board. After a time of prayer and some time in the word of God, we turned our attention to a few key items.

The first was planning the budget for 2019. We were able to go over this in some detail, thanks to Dave Dyer, and focus not just on the bottom line, but also on how to reflect well the mission of God in our financial planning and priorities. The result of this time is the proposed budget that will be presented to the membership at the February AGM. We then moved on to plan that very meeting, which we are looking forward to.

The other two key items on our agenda were beginning to plan a mission/vision/values training and retreat weekend for the leadership of Timbers and an initial review of Pastor Andrew. For the retreat and training our plan is to bring in Brian Derksen, from the Pacific District of the C&MA, to lead and train us in this near the beginning of May. In addition to the regular reports, the rest of the meeting focused on two key issues: the budget cycle and budget planning, which is important as we approach the end of 2018, and our membership practices/policies. For this initial review the board, with Pastor Andrew excused, asked a few key questions, with the goal of providing encouragement, thoughts towards improvement, and clear feedback.

Our meeting began, as it always does, in the word and in prayer. This month we focused on the topic of prayers for healing, and anointing with oil, from James 5. The reason for this is that we are planning an "Elder-Led" service on Nov. 25th which will conclude in our elders being available to pray for people and anoint them with oil.

In addition to the regular reports, the rest of the meeting focused on two key issues: the budget cycle and budget planning, which is important as we approach the end of 2018, and our membership practices/policies.

Our elders meeting began in the word of God with a time of devotions and continued into an extended time of prayer over one another, Timbers, and Prince George. We were especially burdened to pray over the young people of Prince George, given recent events.

We received the usual staff and financial reports and welcomed Andrew to his first Board Meeting. Some of the meeting was to help begin to get Pastor Andrew familiar with things at Timbers as well as get some of the organizational loose ends, mentioned in the September board meeting, on to the table now that Andrew has started.

There were also other details and minor issues to communicate and attend to, including Andrew’s installation service on Oct. 28th, and a board training opportunity with Brian from the District office on Oct. 27th.

Our elders meeting began in a way we always like it to begin- with a time of anointing and prayer for physical healing for a member of our congregation. We then had a brief devotional and another season of prayer for one another and Timbers as a whole.

In addition to the usual staff and financial reports, our transitional pastor had an extended presentation on what things were yet to be done before he left, some things that would need to be addressed when the new pastor arrived, and notes about other organizational loose ends the board and new pastor need to be aware of.

There were a few other minor business items and some planning for the end of the transitional season and start of Andrew’s time at Timbers.

The July 4th meeting began with a report from the Search Team, recommending two individuals be pre-candidated. Pre-Candidating is basically an in person interview with the board of elders, after which a decision to candidate one or neither of the applicants is made.

While pre-candidating is not a public process, candidating is. A candidating time usual goes over several days, including a weekend, with the candidate and family going to various planned events to get to know the church and give the people of the church a chance to get to know them.

Following a candidating event, the elders make a decision on whether to call the individual as lead pastor or not, and of course the candidate and family also need to make a decision about coming to PG or not if they are called.

There were other reports from the treasurer and lead pastor, but search issues were the dominant features of the meeting.

The June 6 meeting began with prayer and anointing for healing for an individual from the church. All who are a part of Timbers are invited to ask for this ministry which is a part of the role of elders.

The board received an update on the search process being carried out by the Search Team, approved a church membership reboot plan and a sound equip upgrade plan, both of which will be communicated in the near future.

Other administrative issues were discussed, and future meetings were planned, taking into account the possibility of extra meetings due to the search process.

Our regular May meeting was held on the 9th, and focused on two primary agenda items:

The finalizing of the pastoral profile, including decision about search timing

An update on Seth's tenure at Timbers

The pastoral profile was finalized, and a decision was made to proceed to search immediately. There will be a congregational meeting on May 27 to elect a couple of people to the Search Team, answers questions about search and pray over the process.

The elders were informed of Seth's call to Quesnel, and the timing of it all. His first day there will be August 1, his last Sunday at Timbers is July 15, and there will be a farewell picnic or some kind of event on June 24 after church.

There will also be a love offering for the Shelley's, details to be communicated in the weeks ahead.

Every spot had a Lindor chocolate strategically placed on the table to help set the tone. One elder chose not to eat it because he thought it was a test of some kind. So another elder ate his for him.

Following a time of prayer, the meeting was handed to Transitional Pastor Daren Wride to walk through a combined report, orientation and macro-agenda for the board, laying down some tracks for this next phase.

The big items he proposed were:

Transition/Search

Membership

Finances

Governance

He proposed several related action points and some suggested motions to begin addressing at the next meeting.

The meeting also included a financial report- the summary of which will be emailed and communicated to the church in the next week- as well as some other housekeeping items.